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Pacific Rugby Players Welfare organisation cry foul over Tonga's fixture with England
By Liam Heagney
Dan Leo has retweeted the July 2019 letter calling on the chief executive of each of the Six Nations unions to change the international financial model that allows the host team keep 100 per cent of the profit generated from a home fixture outside of the World Cup.
The ex-Samoan international is now CEO of the Pacific Rugby Players Welfare organisation and has been campaigning for a revised profit share model that would provide much-needed funds to tier two nations.
Leo initially contacted administrators such as the RFU’s Bill Sweeney seven months ago and his renewed call has come following the announcement that England will host Tonga next November at Twickenham in a rematch of their recent World Cup fixture in Japan.
The PRPW believes that a ten per cent profit share model in favour of a tier two side being hosted by a tier one country would make a huge difference to the minnows trying to play catch-up on the Test rugby scene.
Leo’s belief is that everyone would be a winner from a revised financial model as it would especially help the Pacific Island rugby community to tackle pressing issues such as player drain, the lack of a viable professional pathway, the reliance on government funding and the issue of depression/suicide resulting from players having to leave home to play professional rugby.
The PRPW chief has called on rugby fans to read and share his proposal in the hope that his campaign to develop the sport in the Pacific/tier two nations can be accelerated.
Fans responding to his message have agreed that revenue sharing is the only sure way to enable tier countries to survive.
They have also suggested rugby is approaching a tipping point where the minnow nations should withdraw from touring until the tier one nations properly address the issue.
Leo also posted that while Tonga won’t receive a penny for playing in next November’s match at a likely sold-out Twickenham, he learned that eight players aged 15 to 16 from Tonga were flying to Japan this week for rugby/educational opportunities not available at home.
“Tell us that is not messed up,” he pleaded.
WATCH: RugbyPass went behind the scenes as Tonga prepared for the 2019 World Cup in Japan
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Latest Comments
The England backs can't be that dumb, he has been playing on and off for the last couple of years. If they are too slow to keep up with him that's another matter.
He was the only thing stopping England from getting their arses handed to them in the Aussie game. If you can't fit a player with that skill set into an England team then they are stuffed.
Go to commentsSteve Borthwick appointment was misguided based on two flawed premises.
1. An overblown sense of the quality of the premiership rugby. The gap between the Premiership and Test rugby is enormous
2. England needed an English coach who understood English Rugby and it's traditional strengths.
SB won the premiership and was an England forward and did a great job with the Japanese forwards but neither of those qualify you as a tier 1 test manager.
Maybe Felix Jones and Aled Walter's departures are down to the fact that SB is a details man, which work at club level but at test level you need the manager to manage and let the coaches get on and do what they are employed for.
SB criticism of players is straight out of Eddie Jones playbook but his loyalty to keeping out of form players borne out of his perceived sense of betrayal as a player.
In all it doesn't stack up as the qualities needed to be a modern Test coach /Manager
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